The president of the Judicial Council of Ecuador, Wilman Terán, was arrested this Thursday as part of an alleged large corruption plot with drug trafficking infiltrations in the judicial, prison and police system, and involving 30 investigators, including senior judges, prosecutors, police, lawyers and criminals.
(Also read: Four children are murdered in their home in Guayaquil; hitmen had the 'wrong' family).
In a message published on social networks, the attorney general, Diana Salazar anticipated that she will file charges for alleged organized crime against Terán and thirty other people investigated within the so-called 'Metastasis' case.so called because of the extent of this apparent corruption plot at different levels of the State.
Terán's arrest was carried out as part of a large operation carried out in the early hours of this Thursday that involved more than 75 home raids. in seven of the country's twenty-four provinces and which involved the deployment of more than 900 people, including prosecutors and police.
Terán broadcast the moment of his arrest on social networks, which he described as “without any basis.”
“Respecting the law, I will defend myself. With this persecution they have destroyed the judicial career,” added Terán, whose home was raided and searched, as were the offices of the Judicial Council.
A few hours before, in another video message broadcast on social networks, andThe president of the Judicial Council had warned about this operationwhich he said “lacks all legitimacy and only obeys interests to hit and destabilize Justice and, therefore, democracy.
“Here I am, here I am, I'm in my office and I'm not hiding anything,” said Terán, who stated that this operation seeks to avoid his intention to purge the judiciary.
This episode occurs in the midst of strong tensions over Terán's permanence in officeafter the Council for Citizen Participation and Citizen Participation (CPCCS) appointed him in February and the National Court of Justice withdrew confidence in him in August.
(Keep reading: The harsh comparison of the US ambassador to Colombia: 'Like with Pablo Escobar').
In parallel, 'correismo' tries to promote in the National Assembly (Parliament) a political trial to remove the attorney general, after having brought the accusation in previous years that led to her disqualification and sentence of eight years in prison for bribery against former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
Salazar explained that this investigation involving Terán arises from the murder in prison last year of Leandro Norero, one of the alleged biggest drug traffickers in Ecuador.
Norero's death led to a prison massacre that lasted three days and left thirty people dead and more than 60 injured in October of last year. Norero, who was 36 years old, was known by the alias “El Patrón” and was also wanted in Peru.
Norero's gang was dedicated to “several crimes that are related to corruption, drug trafficking, violent deaths, money laundering and more,” the police said on the same social network.
#LAST MINUTE In the Assembly they said that they will not support the trial of Prosecutor Diana Salazar and that they will not lend themselves to pacts in favor of IMPUNITY and mafias of Correa, Jorge Glas, Wilman Terán on the case #metastasis etc…
Correistas no longer lie to people! pic.twitter.com/9UJUwyS9et— ঌ༒☬☠🇪🇨🔥💀ѕσ͜͡ч t͜͡r͜͡σ͜͡чα͜͡n͜͡σ͜͡💀🔥🇪🇨☠☬༒࿐ (@TroyanoMr) December 14, 2023
From that event “indications emerged of a criminal structure embedded in all levels of the State and directly linked to drug trafficking,” stated the attorney general.
“(The) Leaders of the criminal structure had money obtained from illegal activities and located corrupt officials who carried out their processes to obtain undue advantages in a system consumed by the cancer of corruption,” he added.
Salazar considered that “the 'Metastasis' case is a clear x-ray of how drug trafficking has taken over the institutions of the State, to operate through ill-gotten money from judicial and political bodies and achieve impunity in some cases.”
(We recommend: The United States warns that drug traffickers seek to infiltrate Ecuador's judicial system).
Ecuador reached a seizure record in 2021, when it seized 210 tons. Violence has grown along with drug trafficking. Between 2018 and 2022, homicides quadrupled in the country.
The prosecutor emphasized that “today the term 'narcopolitics' has been demonstrated and is no longer distant.”because we can see how criminal structures have permeated the institutions to achieve their objectives, and surely the response to this operation will be an escalation of violence.”
Among the other detainees are former criminal judge Ronald Guerrero and retired Police General Pablo Ramírez.who was director of the national penitentiary system and later director of the Police Anti-Narcotics Unit.
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL
*With information from EFE and AFP
#Tentacles #organized #crime #spread #Ecuador #judges #prosecutors #arrested